Josh started to pull the Affinity shades. They were all wandering underneath the covered open area that was supported by pillars before the actual temple. In keeping with the style of the Six Affinity Temple, this area was massive. It was about fifty meters long and two hundred wide, standing just three hundred meters from the Affinity pools.
They pulled a half-dozen of the shades. There were only fifty of these creatures, but once they found a target, the power they displayed as their auras seemed to ignite from a stupor into action was enough to make the weaker people in the raid group turn pale.
As they came closer, people shook.
“They’re more powerful than I thought they would be,” Dave said.
The others in Party Zero all had grim looks on their faces as they stood back from the ten main fighting groups with the supporting raid members and the POEs and the mages of the mage’s guild who were readying their spells.
The raid parties’ auras were unleashed, reducing the impact on those who were weaker. Tanks started their taunts as those who had pulled the creatures raced toward them.
Others went on long and wide paths, pulling creatures with them and away from the ten different groups so that they didn’t overwhelm them with Affinity shades.
The Affinity shades, unlike the Affinity animals, didn’t just empower their bodies and their natural skills. They called down spells on the raid party members.
Those who were pulling the creatures yelled out what type of Affinity the creature they had following them.
People changed their weapons, moving around so that those with weapons that were stronger in dealing with the Affinity were at the front. Hitting these creatures with the same Affinity weapons or spells would serve to make them stronger.
The first shade unleashed light from its hands. People hunkered down behind Mana shields. The stream of light hit like a truck along its length. The terrifying beam shed motes of light that danced lazily around as it ate through powerful Mana barriers with ease.
The shade erupted into light, even though the shade was a Dark-attributed creature. The Light Affinity that dwelled within it had changed its composition, making it almost invulnerable to Light attacks. Although its magic was weaker than it could have been, the shade’s largest weakness, Light-attributed weapons and armor, was now removed.
Darklings, curses, Dark Affinity Mana bolts: all of these hit the shade. Even if someone had a weak Dark spell, they slammed into the shade. Still, it moved forward with great speed. It was stopped by a sword-wielding Orc. With a flash of its fingers, it cut through the Orc with ease. The shade’s speed was greatly increased with the blessing that the Light Affinity spirit placed on it.
A golden Mana barrier surrounded it, stopping the magical attacks that had brought its Health down by a third.
The creature tore through the weaker of the opponents. It had the presence of mind to direct its attacks to those who were weaker than it.
The stronger moved to intercept and push it back. They weren’t able to save the first five victims. The shade moved much faster than anything else that they had fought.
As it unleashed its lance of light, these stronger fighters were able to resist it as the mages and ranged fighters poured in their attacks.
The golden shield continued to last.
“Damn spirit is supporting the shield with its own power.” Lox moved the sword in his hand. They waited for Deia’s word. The Light shade was by no means the worst of the Affinity spirit shades.
In all of the ten groups, the different fighters were giving all they had and were still being thrown back. POEs drew back, moving away from the front lines to support. They were only mortal.
“These shades are at least as strong as a Level 900 creature,” Suzy said.
Everyone had a grim expression on their face as they watched. In three minutes, they had lost more people than they had over the last five hours since the beginning of the raid.
Most of the veteran Stone Raiders were around Level 700 in their overall strength if someone was to look at just their stats.
Most of the highest-leveled people in the other guilds were around Level 800 by comparison.
The better of the Stone Raider veterans were around Level 900. They could fight the shades toe-to-toe, though a number of them were mages, or ranged, meaning that they couldn’t take the pressure off the melee fighters.
Josh and the guild leaders of the Stone Raiders, as well as the strongest of the guild, were around Level 1,000.
Kim, with some supporting mages, glowed with magical power as she called down a lightning strike on the Light Affinity spirit. Its speed slowed dramatically as its golden Mana barrier shuddered.
Even though the Level 700s were well below the strength of the spirits, they threw themselves forward, just getting in a few hits before they pulled back.
The 800 and 900 levels were leading this battle, with everyone else supporting them and the higher-leveled people dropping massive attacks to stagger the Affinity shades.
In Party Zero, with all of their gear and weapons, Suzy, Gurren, and Lox were nearly Level 800. Steve was close to a 1,000. Dave was almost 1,100. Induca and Malsour were 1,200, with Deia and Anna standing at 1,300 or 1,400.
Dave was seen as the biggest hitter because with his gadgets, he could use all of his strength in just a few moves and still have massive Mana reserves left over.
One of the people pulling a Fire Affinity shade let out a cry. The shade was gaining on them and they weren’t near anyone else. If that shade killed them, its attention would turn back on the fight. If it got behind the fighting lines of the different groups that were fighting, they’d fall apart.
“Go,” Deia said.
Party Zero moved with speed that had to be seen to be believed. They rushed forward, their melee fighters out front with Water creations, which looked like scaled-up versions of Water Affinity spirits, complete with a core in their center to stabilize them.
Other creations moved to Suzy, entering her spatial ring as other Water creations fell out, replacing them and ready to fight.
Anna was the first to reach the spirit.
The slim elven woman who had been pulling the Fire Affinity shade looked up to them with glee.
Seeing the grim looks on Party Zero’s faces, Anna felt a calm pass through her. She looked back to the shades with a smirk on her face.
I might be some small fry, but I’m a Stone Raider and there are many stronger members than me!
Anna came down, her hands flashing with her massive sword. A dome of rapidly moving air formed around the Fire spirit and a hundred meters in every direction.
“I used vacuum dome! All the air in the area is being pulled out. I’ve blessed you so that the dome will not affect you.” Anna’s blade continuously moved to adjust the sphere’s influence. If she was to attack the Fire Affinity spirit with her Air Affinity attacks, it would become weaker, but its attacks would be more powerful with the additional oxygen in the air.
Steve pulled up his arm and transformed it into a bolt thrower.
Dave focused, creating a thin sheath of coded metal that formed over the bolts.
Metal and runes formed over everyone’s weapons and armor; even Deia’s arrows gained a coded layer.
Dave twisted the different rings on his rods into the right positions. He placed the rods on top of one another; they seemed to combine to create a longbow. He drew and released. Deia, who floated above, hit with her own arrows.
From Anna’s attack to Dave’s arrow hitting the creature, only the time it took for one to breathe had passed.
Malsour unleashed Mana draining curse, with Induca layering them on the spirit.
Lox and Gurren let out their war cries as Dave, Deia, and Steve fired their bolts and arrows as they ran.
Suzy’s fourteen Water creations surged ahead. They moved like a constantly surging tide. As they reached the Fire Affinity shade, they turned into humanoid forms holding tridents. From the wa
ist down, they were formless water.
The Fire Affinity spirit let out a shrill shriek, focusing on the Water creations and unleashing spells on them. Its attacks were weakened by forty percent with Anna’s dome.
The Water creations let out their own shrieks, sounding like tortured souls that had been held under the pressures of the deep sea for centuries. Their hands flashed forward with weapons. Although spells needing heat were weakened, the water moved easily.
Cutting streams flew from the Water creations, hitting the Fire Affinity shade from every direction.
It turned into a fiery tornado, pushing back the attacks. When it reached the Water creations, they tried to pull back, but five of them weren’t fast enough and fell to the tornado.
Steve’s arm changed back to normal as he raised his axe to attack.
Induca let loose a spell. It struck the tornado and ripped apart the fabric of the spell.
The Fire shade shrieked in anger and pain as it held its head at having its spell destroyed and the spell’s power backlash onto it.
Malsour held his ground with Induca to one side, Suzy to the other, and Dave beside her as he released arrow after arrow into the Fire spirit.
It was down to fifty percent of its Health.
The Fire shade hit Gurren with a fireball, sending him flying back five meters. Though it wasn’t fast enough to stop Steve and Lox.
The Water creations also charged forward in support. They used their bodies as shields, taking hits that would have landed on Lox and Steve, allowing the two to land hits that took large chunks of Health away from the shade.
An angry red sphere revolved around the Fire shade, pushing out to encompass Steve, Lox, and the Water creations.
Sweat fell from Induca and Deia’s brows. At almost the same time, they opened their eyes. Although they couldn’t attack the Fire shade directly, lest they give it power, they knew the Fire Affinity intimately. Their knowledge allowed them to tear apart the spell formation as it left the Fire shade’s personal domain.
Lox was covered with sweat and Steve’s armor was red-hot. They were being supplied air while in the dome, but the heat in a vacuum dissipated slowly.
Anna’s movements with her sword changed. Air rushed in, pulling heat out from within her vacuum sphere.
The Fire shade was down to just twenty percent of its Health. All of the Water creations had been killed off with the last attack, their cores lying on the ground, dim without power.
A sword covered in frost appeared in the center of the Fire shade’s stomach and tore upward.
The Fire shade let out a shriek, trying to fight and heal itself at the same time, but the damage was too great.
In Emerilia, it wasn’t always depleting someone’s Health bar that led to their death; hitting their vitals was a quick and easy way to finish them off. It was how assassins could take out targets many times stronger than them.
Gurren’s sword came out of the Fire shade. It fell to the ground, its Health bar shooting downward.
Gurren breathed heavily, blood down the side of his face. His breastplate was scorched where the fireball had impacted.
The dome around the battle fell away as Anna rested her sword on the ground.
“Check yourselves over.” Deia sent a healing spell to Gurren.
“Thanks.” Relief filled Gurren’s voice. “That fireball stung a bit.”
In just a few moments, Party Zero recovered from their fight. Deia already had their next target picked out.
“Attack from range. Bring it to us and we’ll wear it down. Malsour, you’re on defense,” Deia said, highlighting a Dark spirit that was chasing another runner.
“Anna, could you get their attention?” Deia asked, a faint smile on her lips. Here they could finally present their strength.
Anna’s whistle made people’s ears ring. The runner saw the members of Party Zero and Anna waving them over.
They put on more speed. The Dark shade was one of the slower creatures but from its aura, the runner’s clothes were wet with cold sweat. If they fell back at all, they knew that the Dark shade would tear them apart.
The air cracked around the runner as arrows passed, making their clothes flutter.
Deia floated in the air, wreathed in flames as she fired arrows. Even as her arms moved in a blur, every arrow hit the shade, her face a picture of calm.
Dave’s face glowed beneath his hood. Runes across his weapons and armor glowed, though his arrows were slower than Deia’s but no less accurate.
Steve, Lox, and Gurren faced the runner, a space between Gurren and Steve so that the runner could make it past.
Malsour rose up on a stone pillar. Black smoke surrounded him as he watched the Dark shade.
Anna and Induca were on the back side from the three tanks but out to the side, ready for the incoming Dark shade, but holding off on their spells that might hit the runner.
Orbs of light appeared around Suzy, lighting up the temple’s grounds. They arranged themselves around Suzy in an arch. She rose up into the sky, an Air creation holding her in the air.
The seven orbs of light fired their beams at the Dark shade. The air distorted where the beams met; an Air and Water creation focused and directed the power from beams as big as a person’s head to the size of a fist.
The Dark shade’s Mana barrier flashed into existence as the light stream hit it. The shade roared, turning to run directly at Party Zero.
Dave and Deia’s arrows made it flinch. Its body rocked from side to side with the impacts. Like some juggernaut from the bowels of hell, it continued on.
Its Mana barrier failed.
Suzy’s Light creations paused their attack, needing to cool down and gather their Mana once again.
Anna twirled around. The wind gathered around her; the debris around her was thrown by the tornado that seemed to gather around her. Her sword sung, the vibrations speeding up the tornado.
Induca, floating in mid-air, raised her hands as if some war goddess deciding the fate of those in front of her. Her face was emotionless as the flames that framed her moved wildly. A red flame formed in her hand, rapidly condensing into a blue flame, then a white flame and then it seemed as if the flame had disappeared altogether. Around her hand, a series of rotating flames and a tube made of flames appeared.
This was Deia and Induca’s self-made spell, Plasma Cannon.
The cannons erupted. The air in the area exploded outward and cracks formed in the stone flooring. Steve, Lox, and Gurren braced themselves against the raging wind as the invisible and highly condensed flame whistled through the temple grounds. It slammed into the Dark shade.
The Dark shade’s ethereal form was as hard as steel. The impact sounded like a thunderclap through the temple as waves of force turned the temple floor around the Dark shade into a crater. The Dark shade was thrown back ten meters.
In one hit, the creature had dropped forty percent of its Health. It roared forward. Darklings appeared around it, running forward to attack Party Zero.
Suzy’s Light creations once again created their light array with the Air and Water creations. The darklings were cut down within seconds under the power of their combined spell.
Malsour sent out a surge of power. The darklings slowed down as Anna unleashed her attack. The tornado she had built howled through the temple and her hair waved in the wind like some kind of warrior goddess. Her eyes glowed with white power as she stepped forward, her sword thrust out.
The ten-meter tall tornado’s power condensed and flowed down around Anna’s arm, using the sword to direct it.
As it moved to Anna’s sword, it rotated faster and faster, condensing into a white lance of power. The debris that had been caught up within the tornado were ground down into particles as the condensed lance of air shot out like a bullet.
All of this happened faster than the blink of an eye.
The Dark shade had recovered from Induca’s attack and raced forward again.
Anna’s a
ttack landed. The spinning vortex lance of air tore through two darklings as if they were paper before it slammed into its chest.
The pressure from the attack threw the ranger who had been pulling the creature toward them, even as they were just reaching Gurren and Steve. Metal and stone reached up from the ground to catch the ranger gently, getting them back on their feet.
Shaken, the runner looked behind her.
The Dark shade looked blankly at Party Zero. The darklings around it came apart like dust in the wind, a giant hole through the center of the shade.
The shade’s form collapsed the dark shadows that filled it, falling away and turning into a pile of ectoplasm with a dark Mana core resting in it. A tombstone hovered above it.
The runner shook their head, not believing what they had seen. Party Zero checked over their gear. Dave and Deia’s heads snapped up, and they released arrows at almost the same time.
An Earth shade had just critically wounded a mid-level 300 who had been barely holding it off. As it went to land its attack to finish off the wounded tank, two arrows drilled into it, pushing it off-balance.
“Get me over there!” Lox yelled to Steve.
“You sure?” Steve asked.
“I ain’t gonna say it again!” Lox shouted, furious at the holdup.
Steve grabbed Lox and hurled him toward the Earth shade.
The metal on his sword and shield changed its form, Dave adjusting the enchantments to make him more powerful against the creature.
Lox’s shield took the Earth shade in the face. All of the force that Steve had imparted went right into the Earth shade, stunning it.
Lox let out a yell. His sword flashed with a cold light and he moved with a quickness that belied his bulky stature. Even as he moved faster than most could follow, arrows landed around him, impacting the shade.
Steve let out a yell and charged forward. With each step, the ground shook around him, leaving imprints in the ground as he picked up speed.
Gurren was quickly getting outpaced. Air rotated around him as Anna rushed past. He straightened out, Anna pulling him through the air.
Dave shot forward. The air shimmered around him—Induca on one side, Suzy on the other and Malsour below them on his metal surfboard. Deia flew behind them at a sedate pace, releasing her arrows.
Time of Change (Emerilia Book 7) Page 34
